What War Makes of Children
by Sentimental Star
Summary: **COMPLETE** What made Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan ultimately decide to fight in LWW? Their answers might surprise you…--Introspective Piece. Moviebased.--
1. The Heart's Choice

_**Disclaimer:**_ I own nothing in this marvelous universe; it all belongs to C.S. Lewis.

_**Note:**_ Hey, everyone! I just finished watching _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_ extended version yesterday evening, and had a series of ideas strike me. They ought to be appearing as fics that I post whenever I feel I have a good grasp on them. For those of you waiting on _Nighttime Demons_, I'm doing my very best to figure out the next chapter, but whether I'll succeed or not depends. I have an idea of where I _want_ to go, but it's the getting there that is causing me problems. Anyway, please enjoy this next set of fics!

_**Rating:**_ K+/T

_**Summary:**_ What made Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan ultimately decide to fight in _LWW_? Their answers might surprise you…

"_**Speech"**_

_**/Personal Thoughts/**_

_What War Makes of Children_

_By Sentimental Star_

_Chapter One: The Heart's Choice _

Lucy has never considered herself especially brave. Yes, she remembers once rescuing an injured and frightened kitten from their big oak tree, but Peter had been the one to get scratched. Yes, she remembers once giving her honey-glazed bun to a beggar on the street after church, but her mother had been right beside her the entire time.

She isn't _brave_ in all the ways that matter: she isn't Peter who has protected them and cared for them since Daddy left for the war. She isn't Susan who goes alone to the post office every month for rations to help out Mummy. Nor is she Edmund, who is brave in a different way than their older siblings, who did not hesitate to comfort a strange child on an unusually quiet train by giving him a stuffed animal. Yes, that was _her_ stuffed dog, but it had been Edmund's before hers, and when she saw how happy it made the boy who was even younger than her, she had smiled and decided to let him keep it.

Yes, she is forgiving, curious, and kind, but she's not _courageous_ like her three siblings.

But in this world, in Narnia, here it is different. Susan, Edmund, and Peter are not the same here—Susan is too old, Peter is too worried, and Edmund…she doesn't know what to think of Edmund anymore.

So when Mr. Beaver tells them there is a prophecy, and that they need to fight a war in order to make it come true, Lucy is more than a little frightened. She is only eight years old, and it was scary enough leaving Mummy behind at the train station that day and going far away into the countryside. She's almost glad when Peter and Susan start talking. They'll take care of everything.

But when they decide it's time to go, she is even more frightened to realize she won't go with them. They can order her, but she'll refuse. She'll go with the Beavers to meet Aslan, and rescue Mr. Tumnus. Whether Peter, Susan, or Edmund come with her or not.

She thinks she might be brave enough for this, brave enough, even, to fight, because fighting for Mr. Tumnus and fighting for Narnia seems like the right thing to do.

Lucy isn't brave. In fact, she's rather scared. But she listens to her heart, and that is more important than being frightened.

_Tbc._

_**Next Chapter: **__ The Right Choice_


	2. The Right Choice

_**Disclaimer:**_ I own nothing in this marvelous universe; it all belongs to C.S. Lewis.

_**Note:**_ So far in this little series of mine, I think this is my favorite chapter—although that might very well change. Anyway, here's the second chapter and I hope you enjoy it!

_**Rating:**_ K+/T

_**Summary:**_ What made Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan ultimately decide to fight in _LWW_? Their answers might surprise you…

"_**Speech"**_

_**/Personal Thoughts/**_

_What War Makes of Children_

_By Sentimental Star_

_Chapter Two: The Right Choice_

Edmund knows now that he has messed up. He knows now that he has messed up something_ spectacular_. His sins—for they cannot be considered anything _but_ sins—are already far too numerous. They were already numerous in the White Witch's dungeons (he can no longer think of her as "the Queen").

Sore, aching, hungry, cold, bone-weary but too terrified to sleep, tightly bound and roughly gagged against a tree, he should be feeling sorry for himself. He would have—if they were still in England.

But they aren't, and Edmund has changed.

Oh, certainly, he felt sorry for himself in the dungeons of _Her_ castle—for two minutes. Then Mr. Tumnus called to him, and he forgot all about being selfish.

Because, really, in spite of everything, Edmund isn't _selfish_ selfish. He used to be—back in England. But before that, before he had ever heard of some awful place called 'boarding school,' the only thing he guarded jealously was his relationship with his siblings, and his relationship, especially, with Peter.

Then Peter went to boarding school and Edmund followed, and there, Peter forgot about Edmund.

That had hurt more than the bullies had hurt, and Edmund was never quite the same again. He grew angry, and mean, and spiteful—selfish when he had never before been selfish, dishonest when he had never before been dishonest.

He is being brutally truthful now.

Then he had met _Her_ and she had made everything all right—_seemed_ to make everything all right. Had told him that being selfish was okay and being cruel was wise and being angry was _right_.

But Edmund knows better now. Knows that being selfish is cruel, and being cruel is horrid, and being angry is _easy_.

He also knows that somehow he has to fix this, and sort out this mess he has created, so that maybe the fox can live and Mr. Tumnus can be saved. So that maybe Aslan can be warned, and maybe, just maybe, his siblings can remain alive and unharmed. He won't mind if they no longer love him (well, maybe he will mind a little), he just wants them to be safe.

Which is why he has to fight: it's too easy to give up. Too easy to curl up in a ball and cry, even though he wants to. Too easy to lay down and no longer care. Too easy to believe that the Witch is right, and his siblings have already been killed.

But he can't. He's not built that way.

Edmund doesn't think he likes things being easy. It's too tempting.

So he will fight. He will fight hard and fight well, and hope one day that Narnia—and his siblings—will forgive him.

No, it's not easy. Easy is the Witch's way. But it's right.

_Tbc._

_**Next Chapter:** The Hardest Choice  
_


	3. The Hardest Choice

_**Disclaimer:**_ I own nothing in this marvelous universe; it all belongs to C.S. Lewis.

_**Note:**_ Here's the third chapter. I apologize for the delay, but it seems to have shaped out quite nicely. I hope you enjoy it!

_**Rating:**_ K+/T

_**Summary:**_ What made Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan ultimately decide to fight in _LWW_? Their answers might surprise you…

"_**Speech"**_

_**/Personal Thoughts/**_

_What War Makes of Children_

_By Sentimental Star_

_Chapter Three: The Hardest Choice_

Peter has never really done anything for himself before. Always it is for Susan, Edmund, or Lucy. Sometimes all, sometimes one, sometimes (but very rarely now) both.

He has never learned to, really. Life for him, for as long as he can remember, has revolved around the wellbeing and happiness of his younger siblings.

So when Edmund more or less stumbles down from the precipice, clearly battered, clearly bloodied, and clearly not at all like any brother he remembers, something steers in Peter like it has never steered before, and he's _angry_.

Not at Edmund. He cannot possibly be angry at Edmund anymore, because, to be brutally honest, this is _his_ fault. And not his brother's.

Peter isn't angry at Edmund. He is angry at himself. And that is why when Edmund apologizes, he can hardly bear to look at him, to see the vivid reminders of his own betrayal adorning his little brother's face.

But he can't _not_ say something, either, flippant and not at all what he really wants to say, "Try not to wander off."

And, oh, the _smile_ it brings to Edmund's face. That smile makes the empty words almost worth it.

But he's made such a _mess_ of his younger brother's life. He wants to fix it, but he _doesn't_ want to put him (or Lucy or Susan, for that matter) in any more danger than they have been already. He wants them gone from here. Safe. And he'll fight to make sure that's the case.

In his heart of hearts, however, he wonders if there isn't something more. Wonders if he's doing this for himself, rather than for his siblings. He knows he'd never survive if something happened to his siblings, and it makes him feel even more rotten than he is already.

It is a change of pace that he isn't used to. But, then, as Edmund will one day say, that's Peter.

_Tbc._

_**Next Chapter:**__ The Proper Choice_


	4. The Proper Choice

_**Disclaimer:**_ I own nothing in this marvelous universe; it all belongs to C.S. Lewis.

_**Note:**_ The fourth and final chapter is up! Susan's turn, and I actually think this might be my favorite chapter—or one of my favorites. I'm very pleased by how this turned out and hope you are, too!

_**Rating:**_ K /T

_**Summary:**_ What made Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan ultimately decide to fight in _LWW_? Their answers might surprise you…

"_**Speech"**_

_**/Personal Thoughts/**_

_What War Makes of Children_

_By Sentimental Star_

_Chapter Four: The Proper Choice_

It is no surprise to Susan that she is the last of her family to decide to fight. She has always been the cautious one, always been the one to think first, and act later. She has never been able to master Lucy's ability to listen to her heart, or Edmund's ability to make a choice and follow it through.

She has always considered herself more like Peter, who actually does think once in a while because he's too afraid one of his siblings will be hurt if he makes a mistake. But when they came to Narnia, things changed.

She has watched her siblings as they went through their individual metamorphoses. She has watched as Lucy has grown bolder, Edmund wiser, and Peter into the king that he is one day destined to be. She feels rather left behind, actually.

But she knows she can't make the decision to fight based solely on that. She has to fight because she _wants_ to fight, and not the other way around. It's hard. She's never liked fighting before. People get hurt when they fight, and she can't stand it. She hates blood, and fighting always involves blood.

But maybe…maybe that's not the point of _this_ fight. Maybe the point of _this_ fight is to make sure no one _else_ gets hurt. The Narnians are fighting because they want to be free, not because they enjoy it. They aren't like the people back at home, the ones who took away her father because they needed soldiers. And really…she ought to be proud, shouldn't she? Not because her father is fighting in the war, but because he's fighting to end it.

She's proud of Edmund because he's chosen to do the same thing. She's proud of Peter because she knows he'll do everything in his power to make sure no one gets hurt. And she's proud of Lucy because her little sister is brave enough to be right there beside them.

She doesn't have to_like_ the fighting, Susan realizes. She _does_, however, have to be willing to stand with her family and with Narnia and Aslan when the time comes. And she thinks she can do that. She knows she'll be _proud_ to do that.

It's the proper choice, and she's surprised by how good it feels to realize that. It's the reason she smiles when Peter asks, "Where are you going?"

And it is why she is able to reply, "To get in some practice."

_The End!_

_**End Note:**_ Well, this fic has come to its end. Thank you for all your reviews, and thank you for the time you have spent reading this fic. I plan to work on _Nighttime Demons_ and _New Dawn_ next, but the updates for both stories will be slow coming because I'm in Student Teaching this term. Stay tuned!

Best Regards,

Sentimental Star


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